HST$Image$
c
i
t
c
a
l
Ga
y
m
o
n
o
Astr
T
I
R
t
a
9
Credit:$C
altech$
Spitzer
Graduate Students in
the AST program at
RIT discuss their
research on Galaxies.
Very Large
Array
Hubble Space
Telescope (HST)
27 25M-Antenn
as
2.4M
Gemini
8M
10
Credit
Not Shown to Scale
:$NRAO
$
Galaxies are made of billions of stars and at the
center there is a supermassive black hole (SMBH)!
The bi
rth ra
te of
the st
ars in
galaxi
affecte es is
d by t
he
growth
of the
SMBH.
Jets
SMBH
Galaxy
11
There are many types of galaxies…
12
Spirals
Ellipticals
Irregulars
Interacting Galaxies
The galaxies in which the SMBHs are consuming
material are called “Active Galaxies.”
The Nuclear regions within these galaxies are called
“Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)!”
Host Galaxy
The SMBH resid
es in the
center, surround
ed by the
Accretion disk w
ith the
material that FE
EDS it!
~ 6X1017 miles
across
Cent
auru
s A
Disk
)
s
Ga
s
on (les acros
i
t
e
AccrX1012 Mi
~$6
Ar8st’s$Representa8on$
The torus is
made up of
dust & gas.
Astronomer
s
are still tr
ying to figu
re
out the size
& shape of
this region.
SMBH
~$$110,000,000
Miles across
13
Mergers of galaxies sometimes result in supermassive
black holes (SMBH) that aren’t where we expect them to be.
les
Displaced Black Ho
1
2
3
4
5
6
Image$Credit:$Ohio$State$University$
Panels 1-6 show a
simulation of 2 galaxies
merging over time
ge
real ima .
a
’s
e
r
e
H
ger
inal mer
f
e
h
t
f
e
o
should b
H
B
M
S
e
Th
enter…
C
e
h
t
n
i
7
Hubble Image
But wait!
That’s a Dense
Star Cluster.
The SMBH is
here!
14
CID 42
AGN can cause gas to be blown away from it!
The Gem
i
Telescop ni
e was
used to
loo
the regi k at
on in
the gree
n box
to map
the
motion
of the
gas.
Red means
the gas is
moving away
from us and
blue means
the gas is
moving
towards us!
This motion
is due to the
active SMBH!
Away
om HST
Real Image fr
of NGC1386
Toward
15